This post was originally one sweet little DIY tutorial all set to go live at 9am this morning then I got immersed in the intoxicating world of coffee filter flowers and ended up adding another and another until I was up to my eyeballs in coffee filter tutorials and inspiration! So it took waaay longer than expected but I do hope you’ll find it useful.

If you’re looking for a cheap, simple and pretty DIY project for your wedding, coffee filter flowers could be just the thing!

The great thing about coffee filter flowers is that they can be used in so many different ways, from decor (they’d make a mean ceremony backdrop) to centerpieces, place settings, wreaths and, if done in miniature, they’d look so sweet attached to escort cards or favor boxes!

You could even create a bunch of them, attach them to ribbon wrapped florist’s wire et voila! a bouquet of flowers that will live on after your wedding and be a sweet keepsake of your special day.

There’s also a variety of ways of making them (depending on your desired effect or the time you have to make them) so after researching the different methods, I thought I’d do a round up on the best tutorials I found to save all you crafty brides having to hunt them down!

Coffee filters are wonderfully delicate looking and absorbant ~ perfect for dying! Use water colours or watered down acrylic paint for a more intense colour or food colouring and natural dyes such as beetroot or tea for a vintage, yellowy brownish aged effect.

The basic dying technique is very similar in all the tutorials I’ve found. I found this step by step photo tutorial by Salvaged Whimsy on coffee filter dying to be very helpful. Erin oven dries the dyed coffee filters to speed up the process but you could always dry them flat on paper towels or air dry them by hanging from a string / washing line.

1. Realistic Roses via Emalee Design~ an in-depth photo tutorial using the intricate petal shape template by Martha Stewart mentioned above. This method is very detailed, it even involves rolling the edge of each petal around a pencil to create a natural effect. Emalee actually made loads of these roses for her wedding decor! However, unless you have a lot of time, I think this style is best suited to small quantities such as bouquets or button holes.

2. Rolled Roses via Salvaged whimsy ~ a much simpler technique, involving cutting a spiral shape into your coffee filter and simply rolling it in on itself. Then using hot glue at the base to ensure the roses don’t unravel. (Full tutorial here.) I really like the finished effect and think these would be so pretty for a backdrop, or a wreath (like no. 8 above) and it wouldn’t take too long to create large quantities.

3. A Variety Of Roses via Aunt Peaches~ this brilliant photo tutorial outlines 3 different techniques for creating coffee filter roses including a pleating technique, ruffling technique and a multi-layered technique to create larger roses. I love the effect of mixing and matching the different roses. These would make lovely, full, ‘floral’ centerpieces on a budget.

4. Super Easy Flowers (No Glue Gun Needed!) via Two Shades Of Pink~ this is by far the easiest way to create coffee filter flowers quickly and in large quantities. All you need is coffee filters, scissors, masking tape and a stapler! Check out the video tutorial below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjwCMZ3RFLM?rel=0]

Also, I love Jessica’s idea of spreading them across a tables cape for a romantic look, or having them cascading down a table cloth…if you used real roses a look like this would be extremely expensive but with coffee filter roses, the possibilities are endless!

5. Make pretty coffee filter flower place cards as seen at this awesome carnival themed wedding on 100 Layer Cake. This cute video demonstrates how to make the blue coffee filter flowers above. It’s just 1 minute long but I think it’s so helpful to watch the whole process from start to finish. It makes it look super easy and achievable!

7. Single stem coffee filter and paper flowers look modern and fresh on their own or pairs in bottles of different heights and sizes. (Tutorial via Green Wedding Shoes.)

8. These rose wreaths by Salvaged Whimsy are so romantic! I like the thought of popping them on the front of the church doors (if you get married in a church) or hanging them from the backs of chairs.

9. Dahlia pom poms ~ a modern yet whimsical touch to any wedding! (Full tutorial on Aunt Peaches). Attach the finished poms poms to a piece of string/ribbon hanging down vertically or strung across the reception space horizontally. If you like the simple, ruffled effect from photo no. 4. you can also make coffee filter pom poms using a similar stapling technique (watch the video tutorial here via Rhonna Designs).

Now for all you who love the look of these but not the time or effort involved, fear not ~ you can buy pre-cut and hand dyed kits to create them quicker or even beautiful ready made bouquets from Mommy Makes Roses. Hurrah!

Ok my lovelies, I’m all coffee filter flowered out. My next move is to actually make some myself…

Please leave me a comment if you found this helpful, or share your coffee filter decor ideas ~ I’d love to hear from you guys!

The best way to color them to look like real is to use the opaque watercolor white from a tube first and then use watercolor black and other colors as deeply as you’d like ( the mommy makes roses way to paint ). Follow those steps and they work really well for real true colors.

I love the look of these! I am getting married 1 year from tomorrow and the colors are difficult. This is perfect because I can dye them myself to look right and I can make more for less money than the satin flowers I was just looking at! Amazing! Beautiful! Just perfect!!

I love these! Had to try it and making a fall wreath with black and various shades of orange. Thanks so much for this :)

Tina S.

Here are some that I made using technique #4

justme

how did u get the black just right? I used black food coloring and it turned out like a techni-color mess!! thanks

http://www.thankful101.com/ AllSheWrote

I love that these are inexpensive and so customizable! I’ve been making dahlia pom poms from tissue paper, but these are even prettier. Thanks for rounding up all the tutorials and putting them in one place.

Sarah Towle

Love this, I will definitely have to give it a try….Baby Shower coming up!!!

This is LITERALLY the best DIY/craft post ever created, EVER! Sorry for the caps but I’m so excited to find this bog and everything in it! Thank you so much for such a thorough and easy to navigate post. U rock!

bridalmusings

I’m sorry to say that I’ve only just seen this comment but THANK YOU! (all caps necessary) you just made my day! So glad you found it helpful :)

I am addicted to making paper flowers and some of these rose patterns are exceptionally realistic and so very lovely. I have done a great deal of experimenting and came up with (what I think is brilliant!) the idea to use dryer sheets (I use fresh,but recycled could be used!)…folded accordion-like and trimmed (in a variety of different) edges, They are easily coloured with watercolour paints, and smell lovely!

bridalmusings

That’s such a great idea – love that they’d be scented too! Thanks for sharing :)

LauraLeeDesigns

I am always looking for creative ways to decorate on a budget, and these are SHEER GENIUS!!! I am chairing a Gala that raises money to plant trees and I love the earthy vibe they create. Plus we can compost them afterwards! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your wisdom!!! I can’t wait to start crafting… I’m throwing a “Gatsby” themed wedding shower in a few weeks; I think I’ll dust them with gold glitter to jazz up my tables!

bridalmusings

Thanks for your lovely comment, both events sound wonderful! Particularly love the idea of dusting them with gold glitter!

Hi, Just found this and they are lovely. I remember making flowers from Kleenex with my Mom and grandma when I was a little girl, ages ago. I have forgotten how to do it. Do you have anything on flower making with Kleenex?

I used the technique in #4 also to make a beautiful arrangement for a poolside arbor. I dyed my coffee filters with food coloring.

Stormy Thomson

These are the ones that I made for my wedding almost 2 years ago. I used the Martha Stewart technique and dyed them with Rit dye. Them darkened the edges with diluted black paint and sprayed them with a diluted pearl white paint to give them the shine of actual roses. I believe I did something like 175 individual roses..

Mary

I’ll be using these ideas for the arts and crafts section of a girl’s camp, really hope it goes well. I think it’s an excellent craft for children to do, and I love it when I can find crafts for children that actually end up looking pretty. Thanks for posting!

Rm

Wow I can not wait to start

Crystal Tingler

This is by far, the best collection of tutorial’s I have found, hands down! Making 200 for my wedding. Thank you so very much for assembling these in one post! What a time saver!

ColaGirl

Out of curiosity, how do you make the tips darker like in the first initial picture? Do I paint the tips a little darker myself after dying?

Libby Halstead Philpot

If you play around with the filters and what you use to die them before you make flowers you will see how they absorb food coloring when mixed to make other colors. I mixed 3 colors to make one color and you could see them separate the further up they went. The longer you leave them in the more they will absorbed. Just dab the tip in gently and see how it works.

Val

So beautiful!

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